Sample size: A robot clipping a tiny gravel of what it believed to be melted fuel debris. — AP
A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the clean-up of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris.
The sample, the size of a grain of rice, was placed into a secure container, marking the end of the mission, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), which manages the plant. It is being transported to a glove box for size and weight measurements before being sent to outside laboratories for detailed analyses over the coming months.
Plant chief Akira Ono has said it will provide key data to plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots, and learn how the accident had developed.
The first sample alone is not enough and additional small-scale sampling missions will be necessary in order to obtain more data, Tepco spokesperson Kenichi Takahara told reporters on Thursday. “It may take time, but we will steadily tackle decommissioning,” Takahara said.
Despite multiple probes in the years since the 2011 disaster that wrecked the plant and forced thousands of nearby residents to leave their homes, much about the site’s highly radioactive interior remains a mystery.
The sample, the first to be retrieved from inside a reactor, was significantly less radioactive than expected. Officials had been concerned that it might be too radioactive to be safely tested even with heavy protective gear and set an upper limit for removal out of the reactor. The sample came in well under the limit. — AP
